Grateful for Good Friends At Work

I’m lucky in many things when it comes to my job. I get to teach a subject I love, I teach a challenging and diverse student body, I have much more scheduling flexibility than most and I find myself teaching class in a brand new, beautiful academic building. However, I am most lucky in the friends I have at work. This occurred today when I saw a friend who has recently taken on a new position at the college and as a result, I see him a lot less. We were both attending the same meeting and afterwards we walked over to the new building, grabbed a snack from the food court and went up to my office to say hello to my office mate. We proceeded to chat about our students and our classes and all things academic (and a few non academic) and we had a good time.

I am lucky that when I come to the office in the morning there are two people who are smart, funny and excellent professors. We solve problems, we vent our frustrations, we talk about how to make our classes better and we make each other laugh.

I am lucky to be involved in a division (LAS) that believes in hanging out after hours. That cultivates good relationships in and out of classroom. That supports staff and faculty in good times and in bad and that genuinely cares about the professional and personal happiness of its faculty.

I am lucky to be part a department that creates things like a book club, chooses Jane Eyre as a book, and then hosts a full English tea to celebrate. I am lucky that my department chair is understanding, smart, knowledgeable and efficient. I am lucky that the faculty in my department are creative and supportive.

I am lucky to have made an especially good friend at work and I am lucky that she and I were hired at the same time. She’s one of the smartest people I know and she knits beautiful shawls and mittens and socks. There are days that I would have surely lost my mind if she weren’t around to talk to. I’m really lucky to know her.

Teaching can be a grueling profession and often times you need a plan A, B, C, D, etc. It is rewarding but that is because it is a lot of work and it is so important to have a support system among your peers. So thank you to all my friends at my community college. You are awesome and often times you are the reason I can get through a particularly brutal day.

Love you guys.